Grey aliens, also referred to as "Alien Greys", "Greys", "Grays", "Roswell Greys", and "Zeta Reticulans", are alleged extraterrestrial beings whose existence is promoted in ufological, paranormal, and New Age communities, and who are named for their skin color. Forty-three percent of all reported alien encounters in the United States describe Grey aliens.[1] Such claims vary in every respect including their nature (ETs, extradimensionals, demons, or machines), origins, moral dispositions, intentions, and physical appearances (even varying in their eponymous skin color). A composite description derived from overlap in claims would have Greys as small-bodied sexless beings with smooth grey-colored skin, enlarged head and large black eyes.

The origin of the idea of the Grey is commonly associated with the Betty and Barney Hill abduction claim which took place in 1961, although skeptics see precursors in science fiction and earlier paranormal claims. The Grey aliens are also famous from later depictions of the Roswell UFO incident from 1947.

Greys are typically depicted as dark grey-skinned diminutive humanoid beings that possess reduced forms of, or completely lack, external human organs such as noses, ears or sex organs.[2] Their bodies are usually depicted as being elongated, having a small chest, and lacking in muscular definition and visible skeletal structure. Their legs are shorter and jointed differently from what one would expect in a human. Their limbs are often depicted as proportionally different from a human's; their humerus and thighs are the same lengths as their forearms and shins, respectively.[2]

Greys are depicted as having unusually large heads in proportion to their bodies. They are depicted as having no hair anywhere on the body, including the face, and no noticeable outer ears or noses, but only small openings or orifices for ears and nostrils. They are depicted as having very small mouths, and very large opaque black eyes with no discernible iris or pupil. Sometimes Greys are depicted as having no noticeable nostrils or mouths. Also reports of alleged encounters state their height to be 2–4 ft tall.[citation needed]

In the 1893 article "Man of the Year Million", H. G. Wells envisaged humanity transformed into a race of grey-skinned beings, stunted and with big heads. (Compare the Morlocks of Wells's 1895 novel, The Time Machine, who appear greyish-white and large-eyed, but hairy.) In his 1901 book The First Men in the Moon, Wells described Selenites (natives of the Moon) as having grey skin, big heads, large black eyes and wasp-stings. He also briefly describes aliens resembling Greys brought down to Earth as food by the Martian antagonists of his 1898 novel The War of the Worlds.

In 1933, the Swedish novelist Gustav Sandgren, using the pen name Gabriel Linde, published a science-fiction novel called Den okända faran (The Unknown Danger), in which he describes a race of extraterrestrials: "[...] the creatures did not resemble any race of humans. They were short, shorter than the average Japanese, and their heads were big and bald, with strong, square foreheads, and very small noses and mouths, and weak chins. What was most extraordinary about them were the eyes – large, dark, gleaming, with a sharp gaze. They wore clothes made of soft grey fabric, and their limbs seemed to be similar to those of humans." The novel, aimed at young readers, included illustrations of the imagined aliens.

In 1965 newspaper reports of the Betty and Barney Hill abduction brought Greys to international attention. The alleged abductees, Betty and Barney Hill, claimed that in 1961 alien beings had abducted them and taken them to a saucer-shaped spaceship. (The term "Greys" did not come into usage until many years later, but the alleged beings described by Betty and Barney Hill generally fit many of the common traits of the so-called Greys.) From a star chart reported by Betty Hill, Marjorie Fish, an elementary-school teacher and amateur astronomer, located the home planet of these beings in the Zeta Reticuli star-system (allegedly the fourth planet of one of the stars of the Zeta Reticuli binary system). The Greys therefore sometimes became known as Zeta Reticulans.

A Grey popularized from the cover of Communion by Whitley Strieber. The portrait was painted by Ted Seth Jacobs to Strieber's description and approval.

During the early 1980s popular culture linked Greys to the alleged crash-landing of a flying saucer in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. A number of publications contained statements from individuals who claimed to have seen the U.S. military handling a number of unusually proportioned, bald, child-sized beings. These individuals claimed that the beings had over-sized heads and slanted eyes—but scant other facial features—during and after the incident.[3]

In 1988 Christophe Dechavanne interviewed the French science-fiction writer and ufologistJimmy Guieu during a weekly French TV Live Show which, at the time, was entitled "Ciel, mon mardi !". It was broadcast by TF1, one of the three national TV channels in France. Besides mentioning Majestic 12, Jimmy Guieu described the existence of what he called "the little greys" which, later on, became better known in French under the following name: les Petits-Gris.[4] In early 90's, the same ufologist Jimmy Guieu has written two docu-dramas, using as plot the Grey aliens / Majestic-12 conspiracy as described by John Lear and Milton William Cooper : the series "E.B.E." (for "Extraterrestrial Biological Entity") : E.B.E. : Alerte rouge (first part) (1990) and E.B.E. : L'entité noire d'Andamooka (second part) (1991).

In 1995 filmmaker Ray Santilli claimed to have obtained 22 reels of 16 mm film that depicted the autopsy of a "real" Grey supposedly recovered from the site of the 1947 incident in Roswell, New Mexico.[6][7] However, in 2006 Santilli announced that the film was not original, but was instead a "reconstruction" created after the original film was found to have degraded. He maintained that a real Grey had been found and autopsied on camera in 1947, and that the footage released to the public contained a percentage of that original footage, but he was unable to say what that percentage was. This incident became the subject of the 2006 British comedy film Alien Autopsy, starring television presenters Ant & Dec.[8][9]

The 2011 film Paul tells the story of a Grey who attributes the Greys' frequent presence in science-fiction pop-culture to the US government deliberately inserting the stereotypical Grey alien image into mainstream media so that if humanity came into contact with Paul's species, there would be no immediate shock as to their appearance.

Greys are commonly included in alien abduction claims. Among reports of supposed alien encounters, Greys make up approximately 50 percent in Australia, 43 percent in the United States, 90 percent in Canada, 67 percent in Brazil, 20 percent in Continental Europe, and around 12 percent in the United Kingdom.[1] These reports include two distinct groups of Greys that differ in height.[2] Abductees say that they recognize the leader of their abductors by its "demeanor."[2] Some ufologists and abduction researchers believe that taller Greys, with their reported increased authority and apparently more complex psychology, may be the only Grey type to be biologically alive and that the shorter form could be their artificially constructed robot or cyborg servants.[2]

Some alien abduction reports have depicted variant skin colors such as blue-grey, green-grey, or purple-grey and sometimes not grey at all. The skin is typically described as being extremely smooth, almost as if made of an artificial material like rubber or plastic.[2]

Abduction claims are often described as extremely traumatic, similar to an abduction by humans or even a sexual assault in the level of trauma and distress. (Research has shown that emotional impact of perceived abduction can be as great as or even greater than that of combat, sexual abuse, and other traumatic events.)[10]

The eyes are often a focus of abduction claims. They are said to not move or focus in any observable way to the naked eye. Claims often describe a Grey staring into the eyes of an abductee when conducting mental procedures.[2] This staring is claimed to induce hallucinogenic states or directly provoke different emotions.[11] Although abduction claimants often say that the Grey was only inches from their face during the staring mindscan procedure, they often subsequently claim to not feeling breath or seeing the Grey's chest move from breathing.[2]

Neurologist Dr. Steven Novella argues that the idea is a byproduct of the human imagination, with the Greys' most distinctive features representing everything that modern humans traditionally link with intelligence. "The aliens, however, do not just appear as humans, they appear like humans with those traits we psychologically associate with intelligence."[12]

In 2005, Frederick V. Malmstrom, writing in Skeptic magazine, vol. 11 issue 4, presents his hypothesis that Greys are actually residual memories of early childhood development. Malmstrom reconstructs the face of a Grey through transformation of a mother's face based on our best understanding of early childhood sensation and perception. Malmstrom's study offers a possible alternative to the existence of Greys, the intense instinctive response many people experience when presented an image of a Grey, and the ease of regression hypnosis and recovered-memory therapy in "recovering" memories of alien abduction experiences, along with their common themes.[13]

A rendering of a grey (left) and a male human being (right) bearing similarities to each other.

According to English reproductive biologist Jack Cohen, the typical image of a Grey, given that it would have evolved into a world with different environmental and ecological conditions from Earth, is too physiologically similar to a human to be credible as a representation of an alien. Their physical structure has been sometimes viewed as supporting the panspermia hypothesis, although the level of "parallel evolution" (using the term in as it is used in science fiction, distinct from the use in biology and the related term "convergent evolution") required is statistically next to nil. The "parallel evolution" concept is utilized as a plot device by Star Trek writers Gene Roddenberry and Gene Coon and referred to as "Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development".

Some ufologists say such seemingly impossible coincidences show that extraterrestrial beings had some influence on the evolution of life on Earth in the distant past (the theory of "ancient astronauts"), specifically that extraterrestrials were directly involved in the evolution of primates, including humans. This was supposedly done by genetic engineering, cross-breeding, or a combination of both. This idea may have first gained widespread exposure with the 1968 publication of Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däniken and has since been the source of much controversy, inspiring numerous other books with various related theories.

Proponents of this theory of alien genetic/evolutionary intervention on Earth argue that if the Greys (or similar beings) were performing genetic manipulations and/or experiments with pre-human life forms on Earth (and could somehow overcome the vast genetic and biochemical differences involved in the completely separate evolutionary histories) that these alleged aliens may have attempted to influence the evolution of life forms here in a direction consistent with their own genetic makeup, and similar to their own physiology and general physical structure, since genetically that is what they would presumably be most familiar with.[citation needed] Counter to this view, the anatomy, physiology, and genetic makeup of primates and humans are extremely similar to other animals on Earth, including those with divergent non-humanoid forms such as sea urchins, sea squirts, and acorn worms.

Since the history of life on Earth gives some idea of what is and is not feasible on other worlds, and there is no conclusive evidence of any alleged past extraterrestrial genetic manipulation in our own evolution, some Ufologists have offered alternative explanations to accommodate for the evolutionary improbability of Greys (or any other bipedal, humanoid "extraterrestrial" species) by explaining them as being native hominids to Earth either having left or living in hiding, as Mac Tonnies proposed in his book The Cryptoterrestrials, or from another dimension, as proposed by John A. Keel and J. Allen Hynek.[citation needed]